Page 48 of Bound in Blood
Marco shook his head, pushing away the grammar book. “No more?—”
“Translate this to English,” Jiro interrupted, before switching to a careful, slow Italian, making sure Marco caught each syllable. “Voglio che tu mi baci.”
Seven
Marco blinked, momentarily thrown by the request. What an odd thing to translate.
Six
“I… want you to kiss me?” he repeated in English, voice laced with confusion.
Five
Jiro’s smirk softened, expression turning serious as he inched just a little closer.
Four
Marco’s breath caught. His lips parted as the intention dawned on him.
Three
Marco had never kissed anyone before.
Two
Jiro pressed his forehead to Marco’s, and if Marco had a heart, it would have stopped.
One.
The kiss was… explosive.
Below them, the city erupted. Cheers ofHappy New Yearas fireworks crackled in the distance, exploding in brilliant colors over a beautiful skyline. But it wasnothingcompared to Jiro’s kiss.
He kissed Marco in an unhurried way, like he’d been waiting for this and he was going to savor it. Marco was afraid his first kiss would be awkward, but it wasn’t long before instinct took hold of his senses. He reached forward, curling his hand behind Jiro’s neck, deepening their contact. He let Jiro lead, willing to follow wherever the other man took him in that moment, something strange and new and maybe a little dangerous flickering at the edges of his mind.
Jiro pulled back, nipping at Marco’s lip, drawing an honest to God groan from Marco. They broke apart, but kept their foreheads pressed together, eyes locked on each other and full of promise for what was to come.
The city roared beneath them, but up here on this rooftop, Marco existed in a world of only Jiro.
The other man’s voice was feather-soft when he spoke next, like he was testing the weight of his words, “Happy New Year, Marco.”
Marco swallowed, something thick and heady catching in his throat. His lips still tingled with the ghost of Jiro’s, his fingers wanting to reach out and pull him in again. Instead, he settled for taking his hand, squeezing lightly.
“Happy New Year,” he agreed, a tentative smile finding its way to his face.
For the first time since turning, since his world was ripped from him, his future didn’t seem so bleak. One kiss, and he had something in the distance to look forward to.
Why, then, was he so afraid?
Chapter
Seventeen
FALL 2025
MARCO
Marco woke with thoughts of fireworks and verb conjugations playing in the back of his mind. The older he got, the more he was realizing he would wake up unsure of what year it was, or whose bed he was in. The feeling would pass in a moment or two, but for those few dozen seconds, there was always a slight disorientation, like his mind had to catch up with the immortality.
